The home’s serenely sumptuous parlor, featuring one of the townhouse’s six working fireplaces.

Downtown Manhattan’s Best-Kept Secret

Discover the discreet charms of this West Village townhouse—a modern home in harmony with its history.

Words: Amy Perry
Images: Donna Dotan

Spring in New York City is a splendid sight. Particularly on the romantic side streets of Manhattan’s West Village. And tucked between such neighborhood mainstays as the Village Vanguard and The Waverly Inn, this 19th-century townhouse is the epitome of its enchanting environs.

“When you’re strolling down Perry Street,” says Compass agent Joshua Wesoky, “you’ll notice the wavy panes of the windows at number 21.” The glimmer of handmade restoration glass subtly reminds passersby of the home’s historic roots. What they don’t know is that behind that original brick façade is a trove of modernity and glamour.

From left: the brick rear façade with restored leaded-glass windows and Juliet balcony nod to the home’s 19th-century past; Compass agent and fellow West Villager agent Joshua Wesoky; the glowing Venetian plaster-lined hallways of the four-story townhouse.

After the current owners purchased the property over than seven years ago, they invested in a three-year program of planning, permitting, and rebuilding. The updates include 21st-century construction standards you can’t see, like new steel framing, multi-zone HVAC, and a pair of Buderus water heaters in the basement, to ones you can, including a top-to-bottom overhaul by the acclaimed interior designer Steven Gambrel. “Do it once, and do it correctly. That’s the Gambrel way,” continues Wesoky.

The home’s private bluestone patio leads to an extraordinary garden shared by five townhouses and St John’s in the Village Church, which maintains this rare green space.

When the AD100 designer took on the five-story project, the goal was neither to be too precious with its Victorian past nor erase its ancestry completely.

“Most townhouse renovations are helmed by real estate developers,” Wesoky says. “Many times they turn these historic properties into pristine, white boxes, wiped clean of their original spirit and character.”

Gambrel and the current owners decided to keep and painstakingly restore elements like the leaded glass windows, the Juliet balcony off the third floor, and the antique mantels in the master suite and guest room. Where its past is experienced most dramatically is in the romantic rear gardens it shares with five neighboring townhouses and the Saint John’s in the Village Episcopal church.

Recalling the layouts of London’s most coveted townhomes, the communal garden is one of only a handful such spaces in Manhattan, Wesoky says. And in the spring it’s canopied in wisteria vine, which, according to the church’s caretaker, is more than a century old.

The graciously scaled living/dining room features custom bookshelves, a marble-topped wet bar, and original diamond-pattern windows that overlook the lush garden.

This uniquely fanciful air extends inside with décor that shows off Gambrel’s unmatched use of color, motif, and luminescence, from the pale lavender ceiling of the parlor to the chevron-patterned white-oak floors to the Venetian plaster that makes the stairways of all four floors glow.

Here, discover the custom brass air-conditioning grates; there, see the two-inch-thick lacquered doors. “Everything just feels substantial,” describes Wesoky. But there’s plenty of room for whimsy, like the hand-painted wallpaper in the second-floor powder room that fools the eye as Turkish tile.

Featuring a magnificent red veined-marble mantel, the second floor’s lacquered study can also function as a separate dining room.

For all of the home’s overtly grand moments, Gambrel is a master of disguise, too. A painting above the parlor fireplace disguises a TV (“So James Bond with its sliding armature,” Wesoky laughs), while cabinets built into the gracious framed archway between the kitchen’s prep and seating spaces work as discreet china closets. Built-in speakers, wireless Sonos system, hidden thermostats … no 21st-century convenience distracts from the home’s timeless sense of the refined.

(There’s even a petite fifth-floor bar area that services the master bedroom during morning coffee hour and the roof deck with cocktails at sunset.)

From top left: the master suite’s sky-lit marble-clad his and her baths; the eat-in kitchen’s hand-painted Moroccan tile floors and steel casement windows and doors; the historic West Village vistas enjoyed from the master suite’s private terrace.

No modern amenity has been forgotten or element of craftsmanship overlooked — a testament to the time and TLC both the homeowners and Gambrel put into breathing new life into the home and to the promise of an easy transition for its future residents.

“This is a turn-key opportunity,” Wesoky says, “saving the next owners years of aggravation and renovation.”

In fact, the home is at the ready for the seasons ahead. From quiet mid-summer strolls through its garden to raucous wintertime gatherings around its many hearths. Years of wonderment and delight are just behind its doors.

A resplendent master suite occupies the brownstone’s full fourth floor, with a large dressing room, built-in wet bar, and three sets of French doors.

Continue exploring 21 Perry Street’s old-meets-new appeal at Compass.com.